| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
GothBard's life at the moment: I wake her up at 7:00 am for work. I raise the blind. And a tumble of kittens pours onto the bed to play.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Good night at game. Not only was the game fun, but the dog let me hold him and cuddle for a good 10 minutes or so.
Last night Impus Minor was running his game in the living room/dining room area (it's one big attached area that counts as three rooms: Foyer, living room, dining room), so I was in the bedroom playing Solasta on the craptop on one of those breakfast-in-bed tables.
First Stripey shoved herself up between the table and my belly because she likes tight spaces. Then Blacky curled up in my "lap" (is it a lap when you're lying down?). Then Fluffy came over and sprawled out on her back just out of my reach, as cats do. ("Prove you love me! Move 6" to pet me!")
And they were there for a good 3 hours. It was very pleasant.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Practical tip: Use proper shelving for storing your kittens.
Practical tip: Use proper shelving for storing your kittens.
I swear, that picture really does do justice to just how big Fluffy is; we jokingly started calling her "Planet Kibbeh" when she was growing at 8-9% a week and would eventually reach Earth's mass in her lifetime.
But she's 6 months old, still growing at 6-7% a week, and watching her pursuing the other kittens during playtime is like watching the Bismark chase down a destroyer.
We're going to have a BIG girl on our hands...
A Moggernaut.
But she's 6 months old, still growing at 6-7% a week, and watching her pursuing the other kittens during playtime is like watching the Bismark chase down a destroyer.
But she's 6 months old, still growing at 6-7% a week, and watching her pursuing the other kittens during playtime is like watching the Bismark chase down a destroyer.Actually...
No, no, no... this.
And their historical analysis of that foolishness is amazing. :-P
EDIT: LOL. The first time I clicked your link it went to an ad for the history channel, so I thought you were sending something from that. We BOTH did Indy Neidell! Perfect!
So, I know that there are people who swear by the "let them cry" method of infant care. I may disagree with the method, but they say that their kids "grow up just fine".
Well, I'm worried that New Neighbors broke their boy. He's 2 years old now. And he's still crying every single day, multiple times a day. And not the standard 2-year-old, "I want to eat tacks and you won't let me!" cry, but the whiny, "I'm vaguely dissatisfied so I'm going to make your lives miserable for the next 45 minutes by crying incessantly," cry of an infant.
At 2.
And it's not like there's abuse (emotional or physical) going on there; the whole reason I can hear him crying all the time is that our uninsulated walls are 6' apart; there are few secrets between neighbors. (Our previous neighbors commented on how much they loved listening in to our political discussions.) They're just as loving and supportive behind closed doors as they are in public.
And he just. Keeps. Crying.
It is very odd and I've never seen it in a toddler before. And I've never met a child raised with a ruthless "let him cry" method before. Correlation is not causation, but it does make me say, "Hmm..."
Kid’s got the croup.
Kid’s got the croup.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I swear, there are two incompatible types of people in the world, and one of them shouldn't live in densely-packed cities.
Back yard neighbor's kid had a friend sleep over last night. So, being kids, they woke up ultra-early and full of energy. When I was a kid, we'd go to the park. Impus Major says that when he was a kid, they'd find something quirt to do like video games in his room so as to not disturb other people in the house.
...and then there are the people who can't be bothered to concern themselves with anyone else in the world.
So yeah, at 6:30 am on a Sunday morning the kids went into their back yard and started playing basketball. I was awake, but they woke up both Impii and probably some of the other neighbors around them. They were screaming, playing, and having fun, and it was "pleasant" noise. But at 6:30 on a Sunday morning? Either find something quiet to do or go to a nearby park where you won't be waking everyone else up.
(This message brought to you because Impus Major was having a major tirade about them this morning and I was thinking, "It's NOT just me...")
Don't spill the melted wax!
It's Official: Planet Kibbeh, aka Fluffy, at the ripe old age of 6 months and 1 day, has caught up with the Fluffernutter at 7.20 pounds to tie for heaviest cat in the house.
Did I mention she's going to be beeg?
The life-size standee of the Golden Girls has returned to the lobby at work. I don't have feelings one way or the other about the show, but I do hate how I used to occasionally catch them out of the corner of my eye and think there were people standing silently in the lobby, staring at me.
... what?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
What don't you understand?The life-size standee of the Golden Girls has returned to the lobby at work. I don't have feelings one way or the other about the show, but I do hate how I used to occasionally catch them out of the corner of my eye and think there were people standing silently in the lobby, staring at me.... what?
Calculus.
Speaking of people not being able to do their jobs...
My beloved Takagi TK-2 on-demand water heater finally stopped working after 23 years of zero-maintenance service. It's pretty much the only repair we've done on the house that I have been 100% satisfied with ever since we had it done. So, I called the plumbing company that fixed our shower because they did a darned good job for a reasonable price. And yeah, you can pretty much guess where this conversation is going:
Scheduler: Can I get a phone number?
NobodysHome: The best number is (510) xxx-xxxx. It's a land line, but it's right next to my work desk so I can't miss it when it rings. Does that work for you, or does it have to be a cell phone?
Scheduler: No, a land line is fine. I'll make a note to the technician that it's a land line.
NH: OK, good. 'Cause lat time to technician sat there trying to text me and couldn't get through.
Scheduler: Oh, I'll make absolutely sure they know it's a land line and they should call.
...time passes...
Technician: I've been texting you all morning! Why don't you ever check your phone?!?!?!
NH: ...
EDIT: Yes, I think it's particularly annoying to me because Global Megacorporation provides a surprisingly good Field Service application and when you enter a customer's information there's a little "preferred contact method" selection where you can choose phone, email, or text, then when the field technician wants to contact the customer they hit a "Contact Customer" button and it automagically uses the customer's preferred contact method.
But, as usual, enterprise software is expensive so people do their own stuff.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Speaking of the hellions...
...Impus Major found an old rabbit hide we somehow acquired or inherited over the years. He thought it would make nice bedding for the kittens so he put it on some padding on his dresser so the kittens could sleep on it. A real fur.
So, I'll give props to the tanner -- that thing has survived an astonishing amount of abuse. Didn't last 5 minutes on the dresser before the kittens were playing some form of game (I know what we called it in elementary school, but horrifically offensive these days and I don't know the new name for it) where one kitten would grab the hide and run with in and the others would pursue, tackle, and seize the hide.
In under 24 hours the fur has visited every room in the house. I occasionally see a tiny streak as one of the hellions runs headlong through the house to seize the hide and either skid across the hardwood floor on it or carry it to a new battleground.
Not exactly Impus Major's plan for the hide, but he is pretty darned pleased with himself nonetheless.
EDIT: And yeah, OMG. "Barn cat" vs. "Purebred cat". Fluffy doesn't know what the big deal about the hide is. But then, even when they're watching squirrels she just watches them. The hellions? They will clearly happily kill anything within reach, no matter the size. I fear Morrigan once she gets accustomed to the limitations on the leads and gets to hunt in the yard...
I didn't know this (I bet the Captain did), but you can buy cheese from the University of Wisconsin
It is called "Cougar Cheese", but any involvement by actual Cougars is unconfirmed.
It comes in a can.
It costs $33.
Should anyone try it, let us know how it is.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I did ask a parent with a leashed kid if the child was feral. I got a confused look that I took for "don't know what that means". So I rephrased. Was your kid raised by woodland animals? Not housebroken yet? I'm confused why you need a leash on your kid. Does it also come with a bell on the harness?
I may have been more than a tad upset with this person. Spent more time posing for selfies in the grocery store than actually shopping or paying attention to...the world around them in a general sense...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Speaking as a parent, I will never give parents crap for having their kids on leashes. They're worse than kittens when it comes to running off and endangering themselves. You can be staring right at them and they'll take off at a full run just so they can dart in front of a forklift.
I'm amazed our species has survived.
Yet again, I find myself wondering why IT isn't allowed to levy fines.
I had a sick day yesterday (very unpleasant, thank you) and came in today to see my Slack full of alerts. I think, "Uh, oh, what did I miss?"
What I missed was the dreaded "Hi, #channel!" that sends an alert to everyone on the channel. Our Slack channels run from the hundreds of users to the thousands of users. If you use @channel, Slack is configured to post a warning: "This will send an alert to everyone in the channel. It is reserved for messages of extreme importance. Do you still want to do this?"
And of course they hit "Yes" anyway.
I keep saying: If you use "Reply All" or "@channel", your pay should get docked by $1 for every recipient who had no interest in that message. Once one of these buffoons starts losing $800 per button click, they might start learning.
So, I'm sure this will offend someone, so today is
Apparently there's a 15-20 minute tour of campus, at which point they have a moment of silence for the indigenous people that "the White man slaughtered to steal this land". Impus Major described it as being incredibly awkward as one of the few White males in the audience and the sheer number of sidelong glances he got during that moment of silence. The tour proceeded to spend hours going over all the resources for minority students: Resources by ethnicity (Black, Asian, etc.), gender (women's studies, LGBTQ+ rights), disability (ADHD, physical, etc.), and so forth. And somehow at every single stop the guide made some disparaging remark about White males. As Impus Major put it, "It was 15 minutes of orientation and then five and a half hours of telling me what a s*** I was for being a White male."
And Impus Major is incredibly laid-back. For HIM to have that kind of reaction, it has to have been really bad. The whole, "We're an inclusive school, unless you're a White male." We'll see how Impus Minor reacts.
So, I'm sure this will offend someone, so today is
** spoiler omitted **
hm.
Interesting.
Opinion Time: Meatballs.
Over the decades of my life, I have been assailed with literally dozens of different meatball recipes, from the traditional ("mix ground beef and pork, some oregano, thyme, salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then put in an egg and some oatmeal for firmness") to the truly bizarre (one used cardamom and mint).
To this day, I have yet to find a meatball I prefer over plain (15% fat) ground beef.
This appalls and offends people. Even Shiro had at me, telling me I at least had to add some lamb, I couldn't possibly serve a plain beef meatball. Impus Major's friend demanded, "It's going to be incredibly bland! Don't you want to add some oregano?" to which he responded with the brilliant, "Do you add oregano to your hamburgers, or do you use plain ground beef?"
So, what do people think of plain ground beef meatballs? I'm frankly astonished at how much they offend people. And yet I've never had anything better. What does that say?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I think you are tempting me into talking about balls.
And it's working.
Howeve, as I am a paragon of maturity, I will keep things to the subject at hand.
I am a fan of meatballs, I too prefer fattier varieties(80/20) so that it is a moist one. I keep any fat to use in other parts of the recipe or just another day. I am intrigued by your mint meatballs, but I usually keep it simple with salt, pepper, onion, and garlic. They are meatballs, and while the occasional burst of unexpected flavor is a bonus, they are usually too small to be able to offer more than a hint.